Louis CK is incredibly sick of people writing about the dumb bullshit he says. At least, that’s the strong indication coming from the latest development in his ongoing quest to return to work and pretend nothing ever happened.
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Comedy clubs in the United States have begun issuing punters buying tickets to see CK perform with copyright notice warnings, asserting that all jokes and everything said by CK on-stage during the show belong to him, and that their broadcast or reproduction outside of the clubs is strictly prohibited.
https://twitter.com/jamesdshotwell/status/1124766832546787328
Comedians prohibiting the filming or secret recording of their sets is not a new concept; YONDR pouches are regularly employed at large comedy shows, requiring punters to lock their smart phones away for the entirety for the performance.
Where this differs, though, is the application of the threats to anything he says inside a show that is then “translated,” “transmitted,” “displayed,” or “reproduced verbatim” outside it. This means that Louis CK is specifically targeting any attendee who might post anything crook that he says on Twitter or social media, and by extension means he’s trying to block the media from reporting on things like the time he openly mocked the survivors of high school shootings or the time he grizzled about losing $35 million because of his extensive sexual misconduct. That, frankly, is extraordinary.
The real kicker though comes from the deeply ironic inclusion of the line “without the express prior written consent of Louis CK,” which is a line that got immediately reamed by the comedy community, given CK’s somewhat questionable prior relationship with the concept of consent.
“without the express prior written consent of Louis CK” lol https://t.co/9E8nTTZ18q
— Megh Wright (@megh_wright) May 4, 2019
Oh! So now Louis CK cares about consent👌🏾 https://t.co/hoIqDZZO0e
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) May 5, 2019
louis ck doesn’t want people recording his shows without prior consent which i guess means it’s okay to do it as long as u give a half-assed pseudo-apology a decade or so later https://t.co/gaKDjSPjxH
— andy™ (@andylevy) May 5, 2019
This would be the first time Louis CK prioritizes consent in a performance. https://t.co/sJnhNzzoyo
— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) May 5, 2019
I’m going to go and tape many, many, many of his shows, get exposed by the New York Times, and *apologize* by saying how disappointed he must be because he looked up to me as a mentor and a genius. https://t.co/vo5tBJfOmu
— haunted dog (@zandywithaz) May 5, 2019
Of course, copyright problems are a serious issue for comedians and joke writers to deal with; unauthorised recording of material is a big financial pitfall for comics, given that once a joke has been recorded and published it’s essentially “dead” and can’t be used anymore.
But then again most comics didn’t spend a decade and a half using their status and power to lure trusting young female performers into private spaces where they then jacked off in front of them without consent. So here we are.
